JB Pharma places a large bet on chronic therapy in order to achieve its growth objectives

JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (JB Pharma) CEO Nikhil Chopra stated that the company is looking into possible acquisitions of brands and portfolios in order to gain a foothold in the diabetes segment. "In the world of metabolics, we'd like to explore things inorganically," Chopra told in an interview. He didn't say whether the KKR-backed company has identified any such potential target or what size deals it's looking for.

"We're not big into metabolics...we have dapaglifozin (anti-diabetes drug), which is a Rs 15 crore brand (per annum)," he explained. Diabetes, according to Chopra, who is also a full-time director at JB Pharma, aligns with the cardiovascular segment, and building the portfolio organically may be difficult. Through acquisitions and new product launches, JB Pharma has been investing in the chronic segment, with a particular emphasis on the cardiovascular segment.

The chronic segment, which is primarily cardiac, accounts for roughly half of JB Pharma's domestic formulation sales. Chopra aims to increase the firm's chronic contribution to its India business to close to 60% in the short to medium term. “We are a dominant player in the world of cardiology,” he said, adding that its hypertension brands Cilacar and Nicardia contribute close to Rs 500 crore and Rs 150 crore per annum, respectively. “Now we are building our acquired heart failure brand Azmarda and lipid lowering brand Razel,” he said. JB Pharma is growing the fastest in the cardiac segment and targets to be among the top five companies in this space, Chopra said. “We are largely covered in terms of offerings (in cardiac)… In the next 2-3 months, we are planning to launch diuretic products,” he said. JB Pharma had in December last year acquired cardiac brand Razel (rosuvastatin) from Glenmark for Rs 314 crore. Earlier in April, it had acquired heart failure brand Azmarda (saccubutril-valsartan) from Novartis for Rs 246 crore. According to him, 150 million people in the country suffer from hypertension, and one in every four hypertensive patients is undiagnosed, as is heart failure. Chopra stated that Razel, despite being a Rs 60-crore brand with enormous potential, was previously under-invested because it was not the focus of Glenmark. "We're pitching Razel to cardiologists and realigning our existing sales force to promote this brand," he explained.

"We expect Razel to grow 8-9% in FY24 and 12-13% in FY25 and beyond." JB Pharma reduced the price of Azmarda by 50% in December, as the drug went off-patent in January and competition increased. Chopra believes that increased volume is compensating for the loss of value. The chronic segment that constitutes cardiac and diabetes are valued at Rs 40,000 crore for the year ended February 2023, almost one-fifth of the Indian pharmaceutical market, and growing little over 10% a year, making it an attractive market. JB Pharma is one of the fastest growing mid-size companies in the industry, with six brands under top 300. The company is ranked 23 as per IMS data, and 16 in terms of number of prescriptions.